Lauryn Hill Released From Prison, Drops New Track

Lauryn Hill completed her three-month sentence at Danbury Federal Prison for tax evasion this morning, and dropped a new track to celebrate her release.

Ms. Hill, who was convicted of failing to pay about $1 million in federal taxes between 2005-2007, entered prison on July 8.

The song she released is titled “Consumerism” and follows the lead of her last pre-prison release, “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix)” by attacking the materialistic culture in the world. She took to her Tumblr page to release the following message:

“Consumerism is part of some material I was trying to finish before I had to come in. We did our best to eek out a mix via verbal and emailed direction, thanks to the crew of surrogate ears on the other side. Letters From Exile is material written from a certain space, in a certain place. I felt the need to discuss the underlying socio-political, cultural paradigm as I saw it. I haven’t been able to watch the news too much recently, so I’m not hip on everything going on. But inspiration of this sort is a kind of news in and of itself, and often times contains an urgency that precedes what happens. I couldn’t imagine it not being relevant. Messages like these I imagine find their audience, or their audience finds them, like water seeking its level.”

Letters From Exile will be Ms. Hill’s next release. While she was in prison, her seminal 1998 album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill celebrated its 15th anniversary.